Delta Elite Owners Evaluation

[MCMIX]

Delta Elite Owners Evaluation

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I just picked up a Delta Elite 10mm today. I have heard these guns are hard on the frame & slide and can end up with cracks in same. I took it apart and checked the normal spots on the frame and slide,rear of plug opening in slide and front of frame where recoil guide rests against frame,and did not see any peening at all. Are there other areas I should check? Are the stories true? It has two recoil springs,one full length and one much shorter,is that stock? Are magazines expensive and/or hard to come by? Any recommendations from owners would be welcome. Sorry for all the questions but with all the Colt 1911's I have owned I have never owned a Delta Elite before. Are these guns worth keeping, or more trouble than they are worth?
Thanks.
P.S. I will post pictures when I get it put back together and working.(See my previous thread).

[Tomcatt]

I love my Delta and will never sell it. Most, if not all, of the frame cracks were in very early guns. They cracked at the slide stop hole. To fix the problem Colt machined the metal away from above the SS hole. I've had no problems with my Delta. I replaced the dual springs with a single 23# Wolff spring and the polymer guide rod with a GI setup. I also an EGW flat bottomed FPS but have not installed it. Mine is a blued pre enhanced model. I think they are worth holding onto. If you decide to sell yours you won't have any trouble getting rid of it.
Tomcatt

[MCMIX]

I love my Delta and will never sell it. Most, if not all, of the frame cracks were in very early guns. They cracked at the slide stop hole. To fix the problem Colt machined the metal away from above the SS hole. I've had no problems with my Delta. I replaced the dual springs with a single 23# Wolff spring and the polymer guide rod with a GI setup. I also an EGW flat bottomed FPS but have not installed it. Mine is a blued pre enhanced model. I think they are worth holding onto. If you decide to sell yours you won't have any trouble getting rid of it.
Tomcatt

I have the same as you. I was wondering what year they changed to the enchanced? They were made from 1987-1996, I guess I will have to call Colt to find out the year mine was made. I am already hooked on it and as long as I can get it to shoot will not sell it.

[Tomcatt]

Mine was made in '88. I think the enhanced guns came out in about '92. I have an enhanced Combat Elite that was made in '94. I prefer the looks of the pre enhanced guns.
Tomcatt

[TheSmokingGnu]

I shoot my DEs a lot, with no problems — the description above about where the cracking occurred is correct, mine are all milled open and there's no problem.

Tuner has given the best prescription for the DE: standard guide rod, 20-pound recoil spring, EGW oversized Firing Pin Stop with a 1/16" radius on the lower back corner and a 25-pound mainspring. They shoot perfectly when fitted out that way. I have tried shock buffs, but quit using them for reasons of reliability (one DE was okay with them, the others were "iffy").

It's a great pistol and a great cartridge.

[MCMIX]

I shoot my DEs a lot, with no problems — the description above about where the cracking occurred is correct, mine are all milled open and there's no problem.

Tuner has given the best prescription for the DE: standard guide rod, 20-pound recoil spring, EGW oversized Firing Pin Stop with a 1/16" radius on the lower back corner and a 25-pound mainspring. They shoot perfectly when fitted out that way. I have tried shock buffs, but quit using them for reasons of reliability (one DE was okay with them, the others were "iffy").

It's a great pistol and a great cartridge.

So you can replace the composite spring guide with the the steel .45 piece as a drop in? Did the the shok buffs disintegrate rapidly and jam up the gun? I have used shok buff in a commander for years in .45 with no trouble, but the 10mm has almost twice the SAAMI pressure limit.

[TheSmokingGnu]

So you can replace the composite spring guide with the the steel .45 piece as a drop in? Did the the shok buffs disintegrate rapidly and jam up the gun? I have used shok buff in a commander for years in .45 with no trouble, but the 10mm has almost twice the SAAMI pressure limit.

Yep, the guide is a drop in (as long as you change the spring to a regular one at the same time). That little plastic guide rod and double spring can go in the box for changing the pistol back to stone stock if you ever want to (although why you would escapes me). I didn't have any problem with the shock bufs disintegrating, the two DEs that didn't run well with them had feeding problems when they were installed, but none when I took them out (all three have the Tuner prescription with Wolff springs from the same package). The one ran just fine with the shock bufs and I used the same magazines in all three, so it had to have something to do with length of travel or slide speed (I guess). Or just the natural result of tolerances stacking in one direction or another. I would imagine that if you bought a whole selection of recoil springs (an 18#, 19#, 20#, and so on) and, maybe, two or three weights of mainsprings, you could mix and match until you got a combination that would run reliably with the shock bufs. Maybe some various over-power magazine springs too, I haven't tried that either. But, since inspection of the pistols after applying Tuner's fix never showed any battering at all (slide stop, lugs, link or receiver), I finally just decided that I didn't really need to run a buffer anyway and gave the ones I had left away to a friend. The only other mods I have made to any of the DEs is fit spur hammers to two of them, just 'cause I like the look of spur hammers better than the Commander-style ones and put on smooth cocobola grips (the replaced hammers and the grips went in the boxes with the guide rod and springs — I still don't know why I do that).

While I have .45s too, I really like to shoot the DEs and probably do shoot them at least twice as often. And, they led me back into reloading after a hiatus of many years, so that's fun too. :D